THE CLONING OF JESUS? #4600 - The World the Word & You! Broadcast

"IS IT POSSIBLE? HAVE WE GONE MAD? ARE WE ABOUT TO BRING THE WRATH OF GOD ON THE WHOLE WORLD? WELL, RIGHT NOW THERE IS GOING TO BE AN ATTEMPT TO CLONE JESUS CHRIST! SOUND IMPOSSIBLE?
WAIT TO HEAR ALL ABOUT THIS…”

I’m Dennis Finnan, host and speaker on the World, the Word & You! Broadcast and in a moment we’ll talk about this new movement to attempt to “clone” Jesus Christ…

… Hello listening friends and welcome again to another broadcast edition of the World, the Word & You! Speaking today is Dennis Finnan, your host and commentator thanking you for joining us on this lovely weekend of broadcasting. Now the World, the Word & You! comes to you each week on this fine station, supported exclusively by the prayers and financial care of friends like you. Indeed, this listener-supported broadcast will celebrate twenty years of God's grace of being on the air around the nation, and with our cyber-broadcasting on the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In addition we are broadcasting on Satellite short-wave radio to the entire South Pacific. Now, adding this up, it amounts to a whopping potential audience of millions people, who can hear the Good News message of Jesus Christ. Yes, you who help keep us on the air play a major roll in this evangelistic missionary outreach for Christ, and for this we thank you.

Well today as I briefly introduced today's topic, we're going to talk what I believe to be the most blasphemous undertaking ever considered in the hearts of wicked sinful men. So wicked is this idea and plan that it may well bring the wrath of God down on all humanity for such a wild, reckless and ghastly consideration. What is it? Well scientists have reached the point where they are ready to begin the ambitious plan of cloning none other than Jesus Christ. No, this is not a science fiction movie theme, rather a real live happing about to occur in the world you and I live. But before I get down to talk about it, let’s pause and listen to this soothing and beautiful music. Then my message: THE CLONING OF JESUS? …

… For almost 2000 years, Christian believers from all walks of life have looked and longed for the 2^nd Coming return of Jesus Christ. As we now officially approach the true end of the second millennium since Jesus promised us He would return, there is a growing movement among some professing Christians to hasten or literally “create” His return! Sound foolish, crazy and impossible? Well up to now it might have been, but as we’ve entered an age of immense technological advancement things are possible today that would never have been dreamed of years ago. Such is the case in the medical technology of cloning. In a moment after we pause for another refreshment in song, I’ll return to talk about the most outrageous project ever considered in the minds of sinful men. My message is entitled: THE CLONING OF JESUS? …

… They said it could never be done! Yet three years ago, a feat of genetic engineering that has been anticipated and dreaded more than any other occurred. A sheep named “Dolly” was actually cloned and “created” using DNA from an adult sheep. This hit the world news like a bombshell. But now real and serious plans are underway to consider “cloning” the first human being; And, of all people considered the Second Coming Project in Berkley, California is now devoted to bringing about the 2^nd Coming of Jesus Christ, through the cloning technology we have today.

Indeed, the object is to “clone” Jesus Christ. How? This organization believes that the technology discovered by Dr. Ian Wilmut, the scientist who cloned “Dolly” the sheep at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland, provides “the possibility of taking a human egg and fertilizing it by nuclear transfer of Jesus’ DNA – the zygote of Jesus Christ ľ that will be implanted in the womb of as young virginal woman volunteer, who will then bring to term the baby Jesus in a “second virginal birth,”’ soWrites Rowland Nethaway in a recent Cox News service article.1 Is this possible? Is it preposterous, outrageous? Well let’s explore this news worthy consideration.

WHAT IS CLONING?

First of all let’s define what is CLONING. Cloning is a technique of reproducing an exact copy of an existing living organism. Dolly, the cloned lamb is an exact copy of the donor sheep who gave some cells for its reproduction. Dr. Wilmut's experiment was simple, in retrospect. He took a mammary gland cell from an adult sheep and prepared its DNA so it would be accepted by an egg from another sheep. He then removed the egg's own DNA, and replaced it with the DNA from the adult sheep by fusing the egg with the adult cell. The fused cells, carrying the adult DNA, began to grow and divide, just like a perfectly normal fertilized egg, to form an embryo. From there, Dr. Wilmut implanted the embryo into another sheep and in July of 1996, the sheep gave birth to a lamb they named Dolly. Though Dolly seems perfectly normal, DNA tests show that she is the clone of the adult sheep, which supplied the mammary cell and its DNA.2 This was an amazing feat because scientists have known for years that adult DNA once it develops into a specific body part is “sealed” or blueprinted forever into reproducing exactly as it embryo formation. However, Dr. Wilmut found a way to unlock that blueprint, and to reset the DNA so every aspect of its initial code would be available for use by nature again. He did this by isolating the adult mammary cell of the sheep and starving it for nutrients. This, in effect, reset the "turned off" genes and primed them to “turn on” again. Wilmut took the nuclei, and thus all the genes out of the sheep egg and then placed this DNA extracted altered egg next to the primed, reactivated mammary gland cell. With the help of a little electrical spark of energy, this caused the two cells to fuse, dumping the adult sheep/s genes into the waiting egg. After that another electrical pulse, prodded the egg, to accept this new fully unleashed DNA as its own. From there it is history, for Dolly the lamb grew and was born.

Scientists from Stem Cell Science in Australia and Biotransplant in the U.S. already have cloned embryonic hybrids in which human cells were inserted into pig cells to become tiny embryos. Cloning experts are now ready they say to consider cloning a human being, and most amazing of all to do this by taking the DNA of human beings that have died, even long ago. According to the London Daily Express, an American couple has paid scientists a huge sum of money ($ 433,000), to clone their dead daughter who died art 10 months of age. Preserved DNA cells from the child will be used to fertilize a human egg to term by the 50 volunteer surrogate mothers waiting to be impregnated. In addition, a group now is reported to have formed in the Bahamas to being producing cloned babies for homosexual couples.

But now back to the most outrageous of all plans, the cloning of Jesus Christ. Is such a thing possible? Can we rend the heavens and drag God the Son back into a human body? Some think so. The Second Coming Project in Berkeley, California is ready and prepared to “obtain a portion of one of the holy relics of Romanism, that contain the DNA of Jesus Christ and use it to clone Jesus.

They say “if all goes according to plans, the birth will take place on December 25, 2001, thus making Anno Domini 2001 into Anno Domini Novi 1, and all calendrical calculations will begin anew.”3 Surely this is a spoof, or a wild Hollywood movie script? Well the latter is true. Back in April 1998, In Hollywood, Director David Rolfe planned to make a movie based on the idea of cloning Jesus Christ from the Shroud of Turin, the phony burial shroud, Romanists parade around as the cloth that wrapped the dead body of Jesus. This film is still in the making. However, none the less, the real thing is anticipated today by the possibility of cloning a human being, even from the dead remains of one long ago.

Now is this possible, ethical, and positive? Let’s explore this now.

First of all, there has been much negative and frankly ridiculous hype about cloning. Some teach we are going to create Frankenstein creatures, soul-less zombies, and even end up destroying the genetic diversity of the gene pool of humanity if we are able to bring about a human clone. Why even unscrupulous foreign powers might create an army of these clones as super-human beings that would destroy the earth. Some believe this is exactly what happened in Noah’s day. Satan, a super intelligent being, discovered a way to clone themselves into the human race by creating the “Nephilim,” [Hebrew word for fallen ones or mighty] a race of powerful controlling giants, half human and half fallen angel, which caused God to step in and destroy the entire human race save eight souls who were not genetically corrupted. That’s an interesting supposition isn’t it, and may well fit the biblical teachings found in Genesis chapter six. However, the question is if human cloning is finally accomplished what will happen?

To begin this though we must understand what a clone really is. A clone of any living mammal human or otherwise is simply a “time-delayed identical twin” of another living creature. If human beings can be cloned, the clone of another human being would be exactly that, another human being just like you or me. They would be carried in their mother’s womb, delivered at birth, raised by a human family just like everyone else. A clone would not be a “Xerox” copy of another human being, just a much younger identical twin. You see nature, God’s standard way of causing all life to continue, is in the cloning business since Adam and Eve. Women give birth to identical twins naturally on average once in every 67 births. In fact, natural twins would be much more alike than a coned human being for they would share the same womb, have the same mother and be the same age. Are twins or triplets repugnant, Frankenstein monsters, of course not? We should not become fearful of the possibility of cloning and what it might bring. It would just bring us another human being like you or me, except that it would contain the same DNA as twins do of each other, but it would unnaturally be of another human being perhaps totally unrelated. Now let’s put this in a biblical perspective.

Is cloning a human being wrong, sinful and evil? The question I believe would have to be answered yes and no. It would be wrong if this process were used to produce humans beings for spare parts, for monetary gain and reward. However we do not need to fear that. No human being can be held as a slave, or kept for dissection and experimentation. There are strict laws in every nation against such things. But would cloning be evil? The answer is yes if we try to use this new technology to create something God never wanted us to consider. Such is the cloning of Jesus Christ. Now let’s further explore this. Here are some reasons such a thought can never occur. JESUS CHRIST CAN NEVER BE CLONED because:

JESUS CHRIST IS THE INFINITE GOD/MAN – God created Jesus to house the body of Himself. The Bible states Jesus is 100% man, but He is also 100% God. The God aspect is not the human aspect, nor the human aspect God. We cannot understand this work of the Creator expect to say historic Christianity believes in this hypostatic union being true. Thus is someone were to actually be able to clone the body of Jesus and create his exact likeness, it would not be Jesus Christ. The GOD MAN cannot be recreated. He already exists and lives forever in Heaven. All that might be achieved would be a GOD-less human being distinctly different in mind, soul and spirit.
JESUS CHRIST PROBABLY HAD NO “NORMAL” HUMAN DNA – DNA is the blueprint of life God naturally created for living and reproduction. For all we know Jesus Christ had none like us, because He was and is a unique different creation of human life as we are. There is none before or after Him like Him. Indeed, God specially created this body for housing His own very being. So the possibility exists there is no DNA to be found that would match the human DNA of us.
THERE ARE NO RELICS AVAILABLE THAT HOUSE THE REMAINS OF JESUS CHRIST – It is so foolish and sinful for the Roman Catholic Church and others to claim they have the remains of Jesus Christ in any form. His body is alive and returned to Heaven. The Shroud of Turin among other things such as the breast milk of His mother Mary, these are fakes and should not be considered worthy of veneration nor concern. If the DNA were to be taken from any of these holy relics it would not be Jesus Christ’s!
DNA OF DEAD THINGS CANNOT BE USED FOR REPRODUCTION – Jurassic Park science fiction is just that. Although cloning from dead tissue is possible, we must realize as tissue dies the DNA “evaporates” with time. Like a poorly “fixed” photograph, in time the picture just fades away. The DNA strand and blueprint does likewise, as pages and paragraphs of code in the deceased tissue are randomly erased over time. Thus, the ancient dead most likely cannot be cloned. The idea of Jurassic Park cloning dinosaurs is fiction and so will be the idea of cloning Jesus Christ or anyone else from antiquity too. Anyone producing a supposed clone of a long dead human being will most likely be a fake. Yes, it might be a real human being, but it will not and cannot be the dead person come to life.

Now apply this to Jesus Christ. If one were able to obtain a true sample of His body fluids or tissue, and clone this into another human being, the resulting life that would spring from it would be simply another child of Jesus’ mother Mary ľ NOT JESUS CHRIST. Now let me ask you are identical twins the same person or totally different people? The answer is they are unique and different although they share the same DNA and physical likeness. Why? For human beings alone have something no other creature on earth has ľ a human soul and spirit.

Now, no one knows how God creates the human soul and spirit, but one thing He does and continues to do is place them in human bodies every time human life is conceived. You see the Bible tells us we are not creatures like the apes, cattle, birds or fish. As human beings, we are created uniquely in the very image of God. The Bible tells us we are made of a body, soul and spirit. We read in,

Gen 1:26-27 (NIV) “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness… 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

James 2:26 (NIV) “.. the body without the spirit is dead…”

1 Th 5:23 (NIV) “… May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Gal 6:18 (NIV) “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.”

Here we discover that man is a spirit being, for his real, existence is just that, the “image” of God. We have a physical body to house our spirits only so we can live and exist here on the earth, which is our temporary habitat. We are told that when our bodies die, and all will because of the curse of sin, our real existence that is our “soul and spirit” returns to God for final disposition. Again we read,

Heb 9:27 (NIV) “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,”

Eccl 12:7 (NIV) “and the dust returns [our bodies] to the ground it came from, and the spirit [ the real person within it] returns to God who gave it.”

Should we fear cloning? The answer is no. If we are finally able to clone a human being and it looks like it may be possible, two things from a Christian perspective result:

IT WILL BE A REAL LIVE NORMAL HUMAN BEING – to which all the rights and benefits should accrue that God gives to life He permits to come into existence. Yes it will have a soul and spirit for there can be no human beings without it. No they will not be freaks, or Frankensteins or any other thing, just as any identical twin is not either. So we should not fear this. Even if they are able to create a clone of Albert Einstein or Napoleon ľ indeed they will look like them, and have many similar traits and features, but they will be unique and different human beings for they will have a personal spirit God creates to house that different body brought into existence. Remember friends, GOD IS STILL THE CREATOR. We may only become the manipulator, nothing else.
IT WILL BE A SOUL FOR WHOM CHRIST DIED – Yes all life regardless of how we are placed into this world. If we are a human being, we qualify for Heaven or Hell. As such the cloned human being will have a Savior, Jesus Christ who died for him or her too. They will be able to be saved from their sins, and be granted a place to live in Heaven for all eternity, if they too turn to and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Now, by our very birth be it natural or special, we are all related to Adam and Eve. It is their DNA structure that brings forth all human life. In the Garden of Eden these first human beings were created for God’s eternal pleasure. God’s desire was for them to live with Him in His eternal and holy existence. But first they had to qualify. They had to be like God not only in conscious existence, but in spirit too. That meant they had to be tested. The Bible declares that Adam and Eve failed the test and as such all who are born from their stock, the whole human race, are likewise a failed and rejected project.

Ah, but here is the story of God’s love. God loved the human race so much that He chose not to destroy it and start over. Rather to correct it and reclaim all the damaged goods. God did this by coming to earth as a human being. He came not in the defective gene pool of humanity passed on by the male species but through the virgin birth of Mary. God specially created a human life that was decidedly human but divine too. God fused His very Person, God the Son into the body of Jesus to become Jesus Christ for all eternity. This infinite GOD/Man lived a perfect life qualifying Himself for fellowship and existence in eternity in God’s holy presence. And to bring all fallen defective human beings long with him, He offers to refashion our fallen existence by giving us a NEW SPIRIT and nature that is God’s Himself. Yes, a sinless perfect nature is given to all who turn to Jesus Christ, ask Him to save them, trust His work on the cross was the means to pay for our sins, and grant us the gift of life eternal. Thus, all who are REBORN through Jesus Christ in spirit, will live forever with God in heaven enjoying that eternal life! What a joy that is. So the message is out. Have you received Jesus Christ? If no why not? Right now I ask you -- do what I and millions of others have done. Pause and reflect on the fact that you are a dying creature and one day will stand before god for your sins and be judged for them. But right now God is willing to forgive you and grant you His gift of eternal life? Will you come to Him in prayer confessing your sins and calling upon Him to save you? Jesus says to every generation,

Mat 11:28 (NIV) ""Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."

Regardless of how you can come into this world, and regardless of what body you have, if you are alive, it is because God has given you life, and created you in His image, as a spirit being. He has simply allowed you to have a new body, regardless of being an identical twin or triplet, or cloned human being. Your life is God’s gift to you, so that you can in return give it back to God through Jesus Christ. May your Creator God open now your heart to receive Jesus Christ. Amen...

... There are foolish professing Christians who believe they will bring back Jesus Christ by cloning Him from some dead DNA remains found on some dubious fairy tale relics of false religious claims, but the truth is Jesus is coming again, on His own and in His own resurrected and living body. The question we all must ask is am I ready to receive Him? You see all of us will receive Christ, either in this life as our Savior and Lord or later as our judge and jury! The choice is yours now ľ take it and trust Christ alone for your salvation and forgiveness of sins and you can await His coming in glory with open arms and a heart of joy.

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Well, you've been listening to another commentary of the World, the Word & You! Broadcast, and speaking today has been your host and teacher Dennis Finnan. We thank you for joining us and staying with us for these past thirty minutes. Say, if you would like a cassette copy or printed booklet of today's message, THE CLONING OF JESUS?, please write to me and we'll send it as always -- free of charge. Here's our address: Write to the World, the Word & You! Broadcast, Post Office Box 40133, Grand Junction, CO 81504. Meanwhile, as our programs are heard, generally on the weekend, please be sure to attend a Bible believing Church of your choice. Then, tune us in again for another look at our world, God's Word and its relationship to each one of you! This is Dennis Finnan, signing off and wishing you God's rich blessing and a great day! Good by for now.

The World, the Word & You! Broadcast is a non-denominational ministry based on the historic fundamental evangelical interpretation of the Scriptures. A copy of our doctrinal statement is available upon request. These weekly radio commentaries can be heard in selected areas around the nation. Dennis Finnan has been the speaker for 20 years, and serves as General Director. These transcripts are available free of charge to all who desire them. Also available are radio cassette tapes and printed booklets of each message. A free listing of all messages is available upon request also.

For further information, reprints, or a listing of all topics, please write to our speaker, Dennis L. Finnan(dennis@wwy.org),or visit our webpage at http://www.bibleradio.org/